With the possible exception of
Irving Berlin, no one has contributed as much material to the canon of
American popular song in the 20th century as Harry Warren
(1893-1981).Warren
was born in Brooklyn
,
New York
,
December 24, 1893
, to Italian immigrant parents.His
birth name was Salvatore Anthony Guaragna but by the time he graduated from
grade school, he was known as “Harry Warren”. (He legally changed his name
in 1938.)He was educated in the
public schools of
New York
and had no formal musical training but taught himself to play the organ and
piano.He also sang in the church
choir.Warren
had a sister and brother on the stage so the theatrical world was not unknown
to him.He worked as an actor and
assistant director for the Vitagraph film company in
New York
and played mood music for actress Corinne Griffith.During World War I,
Warren
served in the United States Navy at
Montauk Point
,
New York
For a few weeks after the war,
he worked as an insurance examiner for the Travellers Agency.

In December, 1918,
Warren
married Josephine Wensler (1897-1993).Their first child, a son named Harry Warren, Jr. (1920-1937), was born
soon thereafter.In 1920, Warren
Sr., became a song plugger for the music publishing firm of Stark & Cowan.Warren
continued writing and in 1922, along with lyricist Edgar Leslie, produced his
first song hit, “Rose of the
Rio Grande
.”From that point on,
Warren
composed a continuous stream of hits introduced by such artists as Paul
Whiteman.By 1925, a second child,
Joan “Cookie”
Warren
(1924-1991), had been born and Warren
continued his success with such songs as “I Love My Baby (My Baby Loves
Me),” “In My Gondola” and the very popular 1928 hit “
Nagasaki.”By 1929,
Warren
was the director of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
(ASCAP).He held that position
until 1933.At various times, he
also served on the ASCAP Board of Directors.During this time Warren
worked with various musicians including Gus Kahn, Bert Kalmer and Harry Ruby.In 1930, he wrote his first movie score for the film Spring is Here (1930).Al Jolson asked him to compose one song for his show, Wonder Bar
(1931).Warren
composed three other Broadway shows in the 1930s, Sweet and Low (1930),
Crazy Quilt (1931) featuring Fanny Brice and Laugh Parade (1931)
starring Ed Wynn.

In 1932,
Hollywood
called and Warren
was hired by Warner Brothers Studios to help write songs for the Dick Powell,
Ruby Keeler film 42nd Street
(1933).Along with lyricist, Al
Dubin, Warren
wrote such hits as “We’re in the Money” and “The Shadow Waltz”.Warren
continued composing memorable songs for motion pictures such as Gold
Diggers of 1933, The Singing Marine (1937) and Footlight Parade (1933).Gold Diggers of 1935 included Warren’s first Academy Award winning song, “Lullaby of Broadway." Warren
also appeared in a few films during his stay at Warner Brothers in cameo
performances.He can be seen,
along with lyricist Dubin in 42nd Street, Go Into Your Dance (1935) and A Very Honorable Guy (1934).He also appeared in a Vitaphone short entitled Harry Warren:
America’s Foremost Composer.

In 1940, Warren
left Warner Brothers for 20th Century Fox where he helped compose
the scores for such motion pictures as, Sun Valley Serenade (1941), Orchestra
Wives (1942), and The Gangs All Here (1943) that included the
Carmen Miranda standard, “The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat”.During this period, he worked with lyricists Ralph Rainger, Mack Gordon
and Leo Robin and others.While at
Fox,
Warren
composed the songs for Hello Frisco, Hello (1943) including,
“You’ll Never Know,” garnering him his second Academy Award.While Warren
was at Fox, he composed “Chattanooga Choo Choo” a song that became the
first gold record in the history of the recording industry.

In 1945, legendary producer
Arthur Freed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer courted
Warren
for his production unit at MGM.Freed
quipped that
Warren
would have the office right next door to his – and he did.The offer to write music at the studio that practically invented the
movie musical was irresistible.
Warren
left 20th Century Fox for MGM.He joined Arthur Freed in writing the songs for Yolanda and the
Thief (1945) starring Fred Astaire and Freed’s protégée Lucille
Bremer.The film was directed by
the incomparable Vincent Minnelli.His
next high profile score was for The Harvey Girls (1946) composed with
renowned lyricist Johnny Mercer.The
picture starred Judy Garland and John Hodiak.Directed by George Sidney, it was a major success, due in part to Warren’s tuneful “On the Atchison,
Topeka
and Santa Fe."This song brought
Warren
his third and final Academy Award.While
at MGM,
Warren
worked with lyricists Mack Gordon, Ralph Blane and even Arthur Freed himself,
and others.In 1948, he and Ralph
Blane composed the song score for Freed and director Rouben Mamoulian’s
ambitious film adaptation of Eugene O’Neills stage play “Ah Wilderness”
entitled Summer Holiday (1948) starring Mickey Rooney and Gloria
DeHaven.This is reported to have
been
Warren
’s favorite film assignment, but for many reasons the film was not an
unqualified success.
Warren
remained at MGM until the 1950s composing for such films as The Barkleys of
Broadway (1949), starring Astaire and Rogers, Summer Stock (1950),
starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly and his final film for MGM, Skirts
Ahoy! (1952), starring Esther Williams and Vivian Blane.After leaving MGM,
Warren
wrote the score for the Bing Crosby film, Just for You at
Paramount.At times, Warren
also served on the Board of Directors for the Academy
of
Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences.

Warren did not retire from film,
but went on to write the music for two Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin films, The
Caddy (1953) for which he composed “That’s Amore,”, Artists and
Models (1955) and for three Jerry Lewis films, Rock-a-Bye Baby
(1958), Cinderfella (1960), and The Ladies Man (1961).
Warren
also composed instrumental pieces and a “Mass in Honor of St. Anthony."
Warren
returned to Broadway in 1956 with the musical Shangri-La, based on the
novel Lost Horizon.The
show was not a success and closed after fewer than thirty performances.He composed the title song for the Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr film, An
Affair to Remember (1957); this song brought him his last nomination for
an Academy Award.The song was
later used in the motion picture Sleepless in Seattle (1993) starring
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

During the 1950s, Warren
started his own music publishing company, Four Jays Music Corporation.After writing the songs for The Ladies Man,
Warren
retired from films but continued to write for piano, even composing the song
for the Miss Oklahoma Pageant in 1964.His
last film effort was to compose one song for the motion-picture Rosie
(1968).During the last years of
his life Warren composed and ran his music publishing business, but remained
largely forgotten as the man who had composed a great deal of America’s
musical heritage.

With the resurgence in the
appreciation of the movie musical in the early 1970s, the tunes composed
during Warren’s heyday were back in vogue, brought on in a large part by the
phenomenal success of MGM’s That’s Entertainment! (1974). In 1980,
he was asked to compose the musical numbers for an upcoming movie musical
entitled, Manhattan Melody that was never produced.Even so, 1980 brought the
Warren
name back to the marquees of Broadway with the David Merrick production of 42nd St.The full budgeted big
Broadway musical used the basic storyline from the 1933 film and drew upon the
whole of the Warren and Dubin catalogue for the score.The production proved to be wildly popular, running in excess of five
years on Broadway.Unfortunately,
Warren
did not long enjoy this final success.He
died on
September 22, 1981
in California
.He was interred in the Sanctuary
of Tenderness at
Westwood
Memorial Park
in
Los Angeles
beside his wife and son.After
Warren
’s death, his daughter Joan “Cookie” Warren Jones administered the music
publishing company until her death in 1991.

Scope and Content

The Harry Warren Collection
consists of original music manuscripts, scores, song sheets, commercial sheet
music, bound scores, scripts, business records, correspondence (business,
personal and fan), clippings, magazines, photographs, cassette tapes, LP
records, posters and programs and personal memorabilia.The material documents the personal life and professional career of
composer, songwriter and lyricist Harry Warren from 1909 to 1981 and to a
lesser extent the operation of his Four Jays Music Corporation, ca. 1954-2000.The collection is organized into nine series.

SERIES 1: MUSIC MANUSCRIPTS, 1928-1987

The music in Series 1 is
arranged into five sub-series: Sub-series 1a: Original Holographic
Show/Motion Picture Music Manuscripts, 1930-1960, Sub-series 1b: Bound
Presentation Scores, 1931-1982, Sub-series 1c: Original Individual Song
Manuscripts, 1938-1965, Sub-series 1d: Published Sheet Music, 1930-1980
and Sub-series 1e: Published Songs, Instrumentals and Song Collections,
1928-1987.All material is
arranged alphabetically by show, film or song title.

Sub-series 1a contain Warren’s original holographic music manuscripts for each show or motion picture.Folders will not necessarily contain a complete score for each
production.It is possible that
some material was retained by the motion picture studios where Warren
worked.Of particular interest are
a number of folders containing untitled music sketches where it is possible to
identify tune fragments that may have been used in later compositions.

Sub-series 1b contains bound
presentation scores.There are
four complete scores, from main titles to end credits, for Yolanda and the
Thief, The Harvey Girls and two copies of the score for Summer
Holiday.As well as the work
of Warren, these scores include the work of the studio arrangers and orchestrators who
worked on the picture, in the case of these three MGM productions, Conrad
Salinger.Other scores are gifts
from other fellow composers or for two of
Warren
’s Broadway shows and one un-produced film.Some of the scores include the libretto as well as the music.

Sub-series 1c contains original
music manuscripts for individual songs.These
manuscripts include vellum and paper song sheets.Files are listed according to song title and retain the original order
as found when the material was transferred from Four Jays Music Corporation.

Sub-series 1d contains published
sheet music for songs from the shows/motion pictures listed.Not every folder will contain a full compliment of the songs from that
particular project.These were
collected by
Warren.These publications are
incomplete in their scope.They
are arranged alphabetically according to the original project title.

Sub-series 1e contains published
versions of individual songs and song collections. The songs are arranged
alphabetically by title.

SERIES 2: CORRESPONDENCE, 1930-1994

Series 2 is arranged
alphabetically by topic of correspondence, (e.g., ASCAP, business, celebrity,
fan letter) and then chronologically.Of
particular interest is the celebrity correspondence and the many letters from
fans all over the world that illustrate Warren’s musical influence and reach.There
is extensive correspondence concerning the royalties and rights for the 1980
production of 42nd St., particularly after Warren’s death when his heir questioned the calculation and amount of payments.

SERIES 3: BUSINESS RECORDS, 1894, 1924-1996

Series 3 contains advertising,
royalty ledgers, honorary proclamations, biographical sketches, legal
agreements, both personal and public, recording lists, reviews, publicity
items, royalty sheets and ASCAP documents. The early material in this series
is an extraction of Warren’s baptismal record that was used when he legally changed his name in 1938.

SERIES 4: SCRIPTS, 1946-1958

Series 4 contains original
scripts from three motion picture productions, one television production and a
catalogue of song lyrics listed alphabetically by song title.Unlike the bound presentation scores, these scripts do not contain
music.Of particular interest is
the lyric treatment of Eugene O’Neill’s Ah Wilderness that
eventually became the movie musical, Summer Holiday.Also of interest is a complete
shooting script for Summer Holiday, a working document that was rarely
permitted beyond the confines of the studio.

SERIES 5: THEATRE PROGRAMS AND POSTERS, 1915-1999

Series 5 contains theatre
programs and posters from productions utilizing Warren’s music, shows composed by
Warren
and shows that
Warren
attended that may, or may not, have included his music.There also are corresponding posters from some of these productions.

SERIES 6: NEWS CLIPPINGS AND MAGAZINES, 1934-2000

Series 6 contains news clippings
and magazines articles about
Warren, his work, and news of various productions featuring Warren’s music.Some clippings are
reviews of shows that utilized his music.Some magazines appear to have been kept by Warren
out of personal interest, and do not directly relate to his musical career.There are also clippings featuring personal information about Warren or
members of his family or friends.

Sub-series 7a contain Warren’s collection of LP records, playback discs, copy pressings and commercial
recordings and one studio audio reel.Playback
discs are arranged alphabetically by project title.Commercial recordings are arranged alphabetically by recording company.The original records currently are unavailable to researchers for
listening until reference copies can be made.

Sub-series 7b contains cassette
tapes of LPs, 45s, and various interviews with
Warren.These original tapes currently
are unavailable to researchers for listening until reference copies can be
made.The play lists from each
tape are copied at the back of this finding aid.

Sub-series 7c contains
photographs of a wide range of subjects, mostly personal photographs and a few
studio portraits of Warren and members of his family.Many of the images are unidentified.Photographs are arranged chronologically when a date was available.Two photographic images are unavailable for viewing due to their
current condition and the need for conservation work.

Sub-series 7d contains
commercially produced video-tapes for some of the motion-pictures utilizing Warren’s music.The tapes are arranged
alphabetically by title.

Sub-series 7e contains CD’s
storing digital images of some of the original music manuscripts and original
documents in the collection.There
are also many photographic images scanned onto CD by the donor that are
currently unavailable to researchers.There
are also images of covers of commercially sold sheet music scanned onto CD by
the donor that are currently unavailable to researchers. There also is one
commercially produced soundtrack for the MGM movie musical, Ziegfeld
Follies of 1946, which used some Warren
tunes.

Sub-series 7f contains home
movies made by Warren
and a few commercial films which were his personal copies.

SERIES 8: MEMORABILIA, 1918-1990

Series 8 includes Warren’s elementary school diploma, his 1918 USN Blue Jacket Manuel and various
“proofs” for Warren
sheet music artwork and a Warren
song catalogue.This series also
includes a copy of the oral history interview done for the American Film
Institute’s Louis B. Mayer Foundation by Irene Kahn Atkins in 1972.

Restrictions:

Donor retains copyright in all
materials transferred to the Smithsonian Institution.

Provenance

Donated to the
Archives
Center, NMAH, Smithsonian Institution by Julia Riva and Jophe Jones, granddaughters of
Harry Warren, on
December 15, 2000

Related Collections

The Division of Cultural History has three dimensional
objects related to Harry Warren.